Market reaction to patent infringement litigations in the information technology industry

Intellectual property portfolios that include unique inventions and discoveries are potentially inimitable resources that provide strategic leverage to Information Technology (IT) firms. The increasing patent related litigations in the IT industry, and the high costs associated with litigations make this an economically significant activity. Taking a market oriented view to this issue we investigate the economic impact of patent infringement litigation on both the plaintiff and the defendant firms in IT industry. Event study methodology is used to assess the effect of the litigation on the stock market returns around the date of litigation announcement as well as the date of settlement/termination. Our results suggest that the news of patent infringement litigation was unfavorably accepted in the stock market for the defendants. On the other hand, abnormal returns for plaintiff firms around litigation announcement date as well as settlement/termination date were significantly positive. We find evidence to the effect that patent litigations are not zero-sum games since combined abnormal returns for the plaintiff and defendant firms are negative. Patents belonging to the electronic and electric categories are more likely to influence market returns, whereas computer and communications patent categories are less likely to do so. Patent importance (as measured by patent citations) is found to be an important contributor to market’s evaluation of a patent litigation’s impact.

A comprehensive investigation on the relationship between information technology investments and firm diversification

This paper empirically investigates the role played by information technology in diversified firms by building a demand function for IT investments. First by reviewing the management literature, we briefly examine different types of diversification, including related diversification, unrelated diversification, and geographic diversification. After carefully developing the theoretical arguments we empirically test the relationship between IT investments and different types of diversification. We find that in general diversified firms demand more investments in information technology, but the positive relationship may also depend on the extent to which firms diversify. Our findings show that firms with diversified structures that increase the complexities of coordination and control, e.g. unrelated diversification or extensive geographic diversification, would face a lesser demand for IT investments because of the increased use of financial controls instead of strategic controls by these firms. Overall, we find that information technology can serve as an effective coordination and control mechanism for moderate levels of diversification whereas non-IT mechanisms for coordination and control becomes more suitable in a context of higher levels of diversification. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.

Firm strategic profile and IT outsourcing

IT outsourcing research has often been at the transaction level, focusing on the role of the characteristics of the IT activities as the antecedents of outsourcing decisions. The present study extends past research efforts examining the relationships between organizational level variables—in particular the business strategy—and the decision to outsource. Results show that prospectors and analyzers are more aggressive in their use of outsourcing for IT operations. However, no differences between the behaviour of the different strategic groups were found for maintenance activities, suggesting that these activities are too far from the core of the organization to be influenced by strategic profile.

How to Use Information Technology for Cooperative Work: Development of Shared Technological Frames

Technological frames, participants’ assumptions about information technology (IT), and in particular about the usage of the technology for everyday cooperative work, are a relevant factor for IT related behavior. Incongruent technological frames are associated with problems during the application and use of a new IT in an organization. This paper presents a field study which applies a pre–post-design in a freight forwarding company. During face-to-face discussion the participating employees of the company negotiated agreements regarding the future usage of a new mobile technology system for every day cooperative work between dispatcher agents and truck drivers. To support the development of shared technological frames the moderation technique STWT (socio-technical walkthrough) was applied. The results describe the structural changes in technological frames, and show to what extent these were shared by the participants. Based on the results possibilities to improve support for the development of shared technological frames are discussed.

Relating research to practice: imperative or circumstance?

This paper provides a starting point for thinking beyond a research–practice divide and discusses possible new conceptualizations of intervention and the role of IT research in contemporary organizational settings. ‘IT research’ denotes a conglomerate of overlapping research conducted under the headings of Information Systems, Systems Development, Critical IS Research and Participatory Design. The paper applies this joint notion of IT research and the IT researcher to draw parallels across these niches of research regarding the question of intervention. Through an analysis of selected field study events, a prominent notion of intervention (as being active as opposed to being passive) is reworked in terms of intervention as circumstance, a circumstantial interplay of situated practices. In closing, subsequent possibilities for repositioning the IT researcher are discussed in terms of reflexivity, facilitation or being a trickster.

Analyzing IT maintenance outsourcing decision from a knowledge management perspective

IT outsourcing is a complex and opaque decision problem. Managers facing a decision about IT outsourcing have difficulty in framing what needs to be thought about further in their discourses. Framing is one of the most crucial steps of human decision making and needs to be assisted to better understand a decision situation. In this research, we examine a number of decision primitives in the context of an IT outsourcing decision situation. We demonstrate how the decision primitives can be employed so that managers can probe deep to better understand a decision situation and to establish a decision basis. In the organizational setting, we exemplify the use of the decision primitives in relation to the perceived outsourcing implications for the managers looking for assistance in accommodating a knowledge management perspective on IT outsourcing. Consequently, we induce insight and a guideline on how to use knowledge management for effective outsourcing in one of the leading financial institutes in Europe.

Realizing business value of agile IT applications: antecedents in the supply chain networks

This research develops a framework for organizational value creation from agile IT applications. Based on the four themes in the business value research—business process perspective, complementarities, application level of analysis, and extent of use—three antecedents (organizational fit, process assimilation, and network adoption) are identified as pre-requisites for realizing the value of agile supply chain applications. Advanced planning and scheduling (APS) systems are used as examples, and two case studies for their implementation in the electronics and consumer goods industry are reported to support the propositions. The theories of diffusion of innovation, complementarities, network externalities, and technology structuration are applied to develop the propositions for fit, assimilation, and network effects. Information sharing and industry clockspeed are identified as the moderating factors in the proposed model. The framework has both managerial and research relevance. The research guides managers regarding ways to more fully realize the value of agile applications and forms a basis for future research on the business value of IT applications.

An integrative model of trust on IT outsourcing: Examining a bilateral perspective

Trust has been considered a central aspect of successful IT outsourcing. Although a great deal of interest in trust has been described, there are very few theoretical models in the IT outsourcing literature to explain mutual trust, its role, and its impact in IT outsourcing. This study proposes a trust-based relationship research model to assess the perceived IT outsourcing success in terms of (1) mutual trust with its temporal dimension of initial trust and initial distrust, and (2) knowledge sharing with the moderating effect of mutual dependency. This model was then validated and applied in a study involving organizations in Korea. The data was collected and analyzed to understand initial trust, initial distrust, knowledge sharing, and mutual dependency as contributing factors to success in IT outsourcing. The results show that mutual trust between the service receiver and provider is very important for knowledge sharing and outsourcing success, and is affected by the initial perception to each other’s partner at the beginning of the outsourcing process. Interestingly, this study also shows that initial trust is considered a significant factor in the perception of mutual trust from the service receiver’s perspective, but not from the service provider’s viewpoint. The results help extend our understanding of critical success factors in outsourcing success and of different standpoints between the service receiver and provider.

Services computing as the foundation of enterprise agility: Overview of recent advances and introduction to the special issue

The advancement of web services in the last few years has spurred a number of revolutionary concepts in information technology and management including service-oriented architectures, service-oriented computing, and services science, management and engineering, which can be collectively called as “services computing.” Services computing is a new research field that goes beyond traditional computing disciplines as it includes not only architectural, programming, deployment, and other engineering issues, but also management issues such as business component modeling, business process design, and service delivery. In this paper, we provide an overview of emerging research concepts in services computing without attempting to unify them as it will take sometime for the field to become mature. In addition, we take a position that the ultimate goal of services computing is to create the necessary technological and managerial foundation to support enterprise agility. In this short paper, we give an overview of services computing, describe its relationship to enterprise agility, and discuss basic technical and managerial issues. Finally, we introduce the papers that are published in this special issue.

Making the ‘MOST’ out of RFID technology: a research agenda for the study of the adoption,usage and impact of RFID

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology dramatically increases the ability of the organization to acquire a vast array of data about the location and properties of any entity that can be physically tagged and wirelessly scanned within certain technical limitations. RFID can be applied to a variety of tasks, structures, work systems and contexts along the value chain, including business-to-business logistics, internal operations, business-to-consumer marketing, and after-sales service applications. As industry adoption of RFID increases there is an emerging interest by academic researchers to engage in scholarly investigation to understand how RFID relates to mobility, organizational and systems technologies (MOST). In this paper, we explore RFID and propose a research agenda to address a series of broad research questions related to how RFID technology: (1) is developed, adopted, and implemented by organizations; (2) is used, supported, and evolved within organizations and alliances; and (3) impacts individuals, business processes, organizations, and markets. As with many technological innovations, as the technical problems associated with implementing and using RFID are addressed and resolved, the managerial and organizational issues will emerge as critical areas for IS research.

ONTRACK: Dynamically adapting music playback to support navigation

Listening to music on personal, digital devices whilst mobile is an enjoyable, everyday activity. We explore a scheme for exploiting this practice to immerse listeners in navigation cues. Our prototype, ONTRACK, continuously adapts audio, modifying the spatial balance and volume to lead listeners to their target destination. First we report on an initial lab-based evaluation that demonstrated the approach’s efficacy: users were able to complete tasks within a reasonable time and their subjective feedback was positive. Encouraged by these results we constructed a handheld prototype. Here, we discuss this implementation and the results of field-trials. These indicate that even with a low-fidelity realisation of the concept, users can quite effectively navigate complicated routes.

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Multimodal support to group dynamics

The complexity of group dynamics occurring in small group interactions often hinders the performance of teams. The availability of rich multimodal information about what is going on during the meeting makes it possible to explore the possibility of providing support to dysfunctional teams from facilitation to training sessions addressing both the individuals and the group as a whole. A necessary step in this direction is that of capturing and understanding group dynamics. In this paper, we discuss a particular scenario, in which meeting participants receive multimedia feedback on their relational behaviour, as a first step towards increasing self-awareness. We describe the background and the motivation for a coding scheme for annotating meeting recordings partially inspired by the Bales’ Interaction Process Analysis. This coding scheme was aimed at identifying suitable observable behavioural sequences. The study is complemented with an experimental investigation on the acceptability of such a service.

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Interacting with mobile services: an evaluation of camera-phones and visual tags

We present a study of using camera-phones and visual-tags to access mobile services. Firstly, a user-experience study is described in which participants were both observed learning to interact with a prototype mobile service and interviewed about their experiences. Secondly, a pointing-device task is presented in which quantitative data was gathered regarding the speed and accuracy with which participants aimed and clicked on visual-tags using camera-phones. We found that participants’ attitudes to visual-tag-based applications were broadly positive, although they had several important reservations about camera-phone technology more generally. Data from our pointing-device task demonstrated that novice users were able to aim and click on visual-tags quickly (well under 3 s per pointing-device trial on average) and accurately (almost all meeting our defined speed/accuracy tradeoff of 6% error-rate). Based on our findings, design lessons for camera-phone and visual-tag applications are presented.

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Is emotion relevant to requirements engineering?

This viewpoint argues that the introduction of most computer-based system to an organization transforms the organization and changes the work patterns of the system’s users in the organization. These changes interact with the users’ values and beliefs and trigger emotional responses which are sometimes directed against the software system and its proponents. A requirements engineer must be aware of these emotions.

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Legal safeguards for privacy and data protection in ambient intelligence

To get the maximum benefit from ambient intelligence (AmI), we need to anticipate and react to possible drawbacks and threats emerging from the new technologies in order to devise appropriate safeguards. The SWAMI project took a precautionary approach in its exploration of the privacy risks in AmI and sought ways to reduce them. It constructed four “dark scenarios” showing possible negative implications of AmI, notably for privacy protection. Legal analysis of the depicted futures showed the shortcomings of the current legal framework in being able to provide adequate privacy protection in the AmI environment. In this paper, the authors, building upon their involvement in SWAMI research as well as the further advancement of EU privacy analysis, identify various outstanding issues regarding the legal framework that still need to be resolved in order to deal with AmI in an equitable and efficacious way. This article points out some of the lacunae in the legal framework and postulates several privacy-specific safeguards aimed at overcoming them.

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The 2007 IEEE CEC simulated car racing competition

This paper describes the simulated car racing competition that was arranged as part of the 2007 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation. Both the game that was used as the domain for the competition, the controllers submitted as entries to the competition and its results are presented. With this paper, we hope to provide some insight into the efficacy of various computational intelligence methods on a well-defined game task, as well as an example of one way of running a competition. In the process, we provide a set of reference results for those who wish to use the simplerace game to benchmark their own algorithms. The paper is co-authored by the organizers and participants of the competition.

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COMUNICAR: designing a multimedia, context-aware human-machine interface for cars

The European Union co-funded COMUNICAR (communication multimedia unit inside car) project designed and developed an integrated multimedia human–machine interface (HMI) able to manage a wide variety of driver information systems (from entertainment to safety). COMUNICAR proposed an innovative information provision paradigm, in which the on-vehicle HMI is able to tailor the delivery of the information in real time according to the actual driving context and the drivers workload. COMUNICAR adopted a user-centred design process involving an iterative development based on extensive user tests since the early phases of the project. This approach was particularly useful to define and improve the layout of the user interface and specify the rules that decide the scheduling and the modalities of the delivery of the information messages to the driver. This paper introduces the COMUNICAR concept and the user-centred flow of design. Then, a concrete case of user-test driven, iterative improvement of a systems functionality is presented. We also briefly describe two software tools that we have designed to enhance the development process in a user-centred perspective. Finally, the future evolution of the concept of smart and safe information scheduling is sketched and discussed.

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ICT implementation in the health-care sector: effective stakeholders’ engagement as the main precondition of change sustainability

As modern information and communication technologies (ICT) now offer new possibilities for improving almost every aspect of health care, their implementation is a very relevant and fast accelerating process around Europe and internationally. The processes themselves vary greatly from scattered single initiatives of various IT solutions to large national programmes. Often treated as purely technical in nature, ICT implementation in health care should gravitate towards the “softer/complex” i.e. people-related issues end of the change. The approach taken by the Informing Healthcare programme in Wales broadens understanding on the value that engagement of stakeholders can bring to the process.

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Evolving a pervasive IT infrastructure: a technology integration approach

Over the past five years or so, pervasive computing has emerged as a new computing paradigm with a great deal of appeal. Enterprises are increasingly showing interest in deploying pervasive information technology (IT) infrastructures to realise the perceived benefits offered by this new computing paradigm. However, a return on the investment and considerations of the currently deployed infrastructure is a constraint for businesses to invest in a pervasive IT infrastructure. Realising that the economics of an investment in a new infrastructure can affect the embracing of pervasive IT, we suggest an approach that shows how the existing technology solutions available in the market and deployed in an enterprise can be used to develop a pervasive IT infrastructure, thereby protecting investments and maximising returns. We present an evolution model to systematically and incrementally achieve a pervasive IT environment, and present guidelines for evaluating which services to develop first based on evolving the existing infrastructure point of view. This work provides practical implications for enterprises as well as pointers for research.

Evolving strategy for a probabilistic game of imperfect information using genetic programming

We provide the complete record of methodology that let us evolve BrilliAnt, the winner of the Ant Wars contest. Ant Wars contestants are virtual ants collecting food on a grid board in the presence of a competing ant. BrilliAnt has been evolved through a competitive one-population coevolution using genetic programming and fitnessless selection. In this paper, we detail the evolutionary setup that lead to BrilliAnt’s emergence, assess its direct and indirect human-competitiveness, and describe the behavioral patterns observed in its strategy.

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